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A Lady in Turkish Dress and Her Servant
A Lady in Turkish Dress and Her Servant

A Lady in Turkish Dress and Her Servant

Alternate TitleDame et sa servante au bain
Former TitleA Turkish lady and her servant
Former TitleA lady in Turkish costume with her servant at the hammam
Former TitleA Frankish Woman and Her Servant
Artist Jean Etienne Liotard (Swiss, 1702 - 1789)
Dateca. 1750
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 28 1/2 × 22 1/2 inches (72.39 × 57.15 cm)
Framed: 36 1/2 × 30 1/2 × 2 1/2 inches (92.71 × 77.47 × 6.35 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number56-3
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 118
Collections
Exhibition History

Paintings by Old Masters, P. and D. Colnaghi and Company, London, April 1954, no. 14, as A Turkish Lady with her Attendant.

European Masters of the Eighteenth Century: Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, November 27, 1954–February 27, 1955, no. 157, as A Turkish Lady with her Attendant.

The Century of Mozart, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 15–March 4, 1956, no. 67, as A Turkish Lady and Her Attendant.

Acquisitions of 1956, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 1957, no cat., as A Turkish Lady and Her Attendant.

The Age of Louis XV: French Painting 1710–1774, The Toledo Museum of Art, OH, October 26–December 7, 1975; The Art Institute of Chicago, January 10–February 22, 1976; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, March 21–May 2, 1976, no. 67, as Dame franque et sa servante.

Vanity Fair: A Treasure Trove from the Costume Institute, The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, December 12, 1977–September 3, 1978, hors cat.

Orientalism: The Near East in French Painting, 1800–1880, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, NY, August 27–October 17, 1982; Neuberger Museum, State University of New York College, Purchase, NY, November 14–December 23, 1982, no. 59, A Turkish Lady and her Attendant.

Genre, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 5–May 15, 1983, no. 17, as A Turkish Lady and Her Attendant.

A Glimpse of Rococo France: “The Amorous Proposal” by François Le Moyne, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, April 4–June 13, 1987, no. 9, as A Frankish Woman and Her Servant.

Casanova: The Seduction of Europe, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX, August 27–December 31, 2017; Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, February 10–May 28, 2018; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, July 8–October 8, 2018, no. 51, as A Frankish Woman and Her Servant.

Gallery Label
Liotard, who traveled extensively, became infatuated with all things Turkish during a four-year stay in Constantinople (1738–42). There he made numerous pastel and oil studies of Turkish and British notables, as well as street persons and acquaintances dressed in the striking patterns, colors and textures of native Turkish costume. Here, a woman Liotard described as “Frankish”—of European ancestry, but from the eastern Mediterranean—holds a long chibouk (smoking pipe) in her henna-dyed fingertips. Her feet are protected from the wet floors of this Turkish public bathhouse by platform shoes. A young companion carries a bath bowl equipped with a comb and lidded container for soap and lathering mitts that will be used, perhaps, at the marble sink behind them.
Provenance

Probably Jane Westenra (ca. 1710–1788), Dowager Viscountess Galway, London, by 1787 [1];


Purchased from her sale, Elegant Household Furniture, Collection of Pictures, By Old Esteemed Masters, Particularly A Capital Landscape and Figures by Berghem, etc. And other Valuable Effects, The Property of A Lady of Fashion, at her house, Situate no. 48, on the South Side of Charles Street, Berkeley Square, Christie’s, London, February 6, 1787, lot 60, as A Turkish lady and her servant, by Robert Monckton-Arundell (1758–1810), 4th Viscount Galway, Serlby Hall, Bawtry, Yorkshire, UK, 1787–1810 [2];


Probably by descent to his son, William Monckton-Arundell (1782–1834), later Monckton, 5th Viscount Galway, Serlby Hall, Bawtry, Yorkshire, UK, by 1810–1834;


Probably by descent to his son, George Edward Arundell Monckton-Arundell (1805–1876), 6th Viscount Galway, Serlby Hall, Bawtry, Yorkshire, UK, by 1834–1876;


Probably by descent to his son, George Edmund Milnes Monckton-Arundell (1844–1931), 7th Viscount Galway, Serlby Hall, Bawtry, Yorkshire, UK, by 1876–1931 [3];


Probably by descent to his son, George Vere Arundell Monckton-Arundell (1882–1943), 8th Viscount Galway, Serlby Hall, Bawtry, Yorkshire, UK, by 1931–1943;


To his wife, Lucia Emily Margaret Monckton-Arundell (née White, 1890–1983), 8th Viscountess Galway, Serlby Hall, Bawtry, Yorkshire, UK, by 1943–1947 [4];


Sold at her sale, Oil Paintings and Water Colours by Old Masters; English and Continental Porcelain Groups and Figures, Furniture, Objects of Vertu, Miniatures and Books, Serlby Hall, Bawtry, Yorkshire, UK, October 24, 1947, lot 156, as A Coloured Pastel—Interior with Turkish Lady and Servant in richly coloured robes [5];


With Brookfields Successors, Ltd., Stafford, UK, by November 20, 1953 [6];


Purchased at their sale, Old Pictures and Drawings: The Property of Ernest B. Hall, Esq., deceased, removed from Hales Hall, Market Drayton (Sold by Order of the Executors); The Property of the Hon. Charles Nelson and from Other Sources, Christie, Manson and Woods, Ltd., London, November 20, 1953, lot 138, as Two Eastern Girls at a Fountain, by P. and D. Colnaghi, London, stock no. A 3021, as A Turkish Lady with her Attendant, 1953–January 1, 1956 [7];


Purchased from Colnaghi by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1956.


Notes


[1] Cited as a “lady of fashion” in the 1787 Christie’s sale, the owner was likely Jane Westenra (ca. 1710–1788), Dowager Viscountess Galway, also known as Lady Galway. Land tax documents from 1786–1787 show that Lady Galway owned property in Charles Street, although they do not specify house numbers or who lived in no. 48. “Lady Galway in the London, England, Land Tax Records, 1692–1932,” LMA/4263/01/1157, Ancestry.co.uk. Another less likely possibility for the “lady of fashion” is Lady Galway’s daughter, Mary Monckton (1748–1840), who, until her marriage in 1786, lived with her mother in Charles Street.


[2] The buyer of lot 60 in the 1787 sale was annotated as “Ld Galway,” and has been identified by the Getty Provenance Databases as Robert Monckton-Arundell, 4th Viscount Galway, who was the step-grandson of the painting’s likely seller, Jane Westenra, Dowager Viscountess Galway, also known as Lady Galway. “Lot 60, Sale Catalog Br-A1553,” Getty Provenance Index Databases, Los Angeles. “Ld Galway” only appears once in the sale’s buyers’ list; however, the name “Monckton” appears repeatedly.


[3] In a letter dated February 22, 1924, Robert Langton Douglas (1864–1951), the art critic, prominent dealer, and director of the National Gallery of Ireland, wrote to thank George Edmund Milnes Monckton-Arundell, 7th Viscount Galway, for allowing him to visit his estate, Serlby Hall, and see his “paintings by Liotard and Pannini [sic]”. The Liotard that Douglas mentioned might be the Nelson-Atkins painting. “Letter from R. Langton Douglas, 2 Hill Street, Berkeley Square [London] to George Edmund Milnes Monckton-Arundell, 7th Viscount Galway; 22 Feb. 1924,” Ga 2 E 180, Correspondence and Personal Papers of George Edmund Milnes Monckton-Arundell, 7th Viscount Galway (1844–1931) and Vere Monckton-Arundell, 7th Viscountess Galway (d. 1931), University of Nottingham Libraries, Manuscripts and Special Collections, copy in NAMA curatorial files.


[4] The provenance from 1810 to 1947 is based upon the right of succession and assumes that the painting descended from parent to firstborn child.


[5] Although the picture is listed as a pastel, this is probably erroneous, since the four other pastel versions of the painting are accounted for in other collections at this time. See email from Marcel Rœthlisberger, Professor Emeritus, University of Geneva, to Glynnis Stevenson, the Nelson-Atkins, May 16, 2018, NAMA curatorial files.


[6] Brookfields Successors, Ltd., was a department store and estate liquidation company in Stafford, who consigned the painting to the Christie’s sale of November 20, 1953. Several advertisements in The Staffordshire Advertiser in the 1940s and 1950s show that Brookfield’s Successors also provided funeral director services. By late 1953, Brookfield’s was going out of business and liquidating their stock. See email from Daniel Jarmai, Christie’s Archives, London, to Glynnis Stevenson, the Nelson-Atkins, May 22, 2018, NAMA curatorial files. The William Salt Library in Stafford was unable to provide further information.


[7] See email from MacKenzie Mallon, the Nelson-Atkins, to Jeremy Howard, Head of Research, Colnaghi, June 28, 2017, NAMA curatorial files.


Published References

A Catalogue of the Elegant Household Furniture, Collection of Pictures, By Old Esteemed Masters, Particularly A Capital Landscape and Figures by Berghem, etc. And other Valuable Effects, The Property of A Lady of Fashion, at her house, Situate no. 48, on the South Side of Charles Street, Berkeley Square (London: Christie’s, February 5–6, 1787), 12, as A Turkish lady and her Servant. 

 

Oil Paintings and Water Colours by Old Masters; English and Continental Porcelain Groups and Figures, Furniture, Objects of Vertu, Miniatures and Books, Serlby Hall, Bawtry, Yorks, By order of the Rt. Hon. the Viscountess Galway (Bawtry, Yorkshire, UK: Henry Spencer and Sons, 1947), 17, erroneously as A Coloured Pastel—Interior with Turkish Lady and Servant in richly coloured robes. 

 

Art Prices Current: A Record of Sale Prices at the Principal London Continental and American Auction Rooms, vol. 26, New Series: August 1947 to July 1949 (London: Art Trade, 1949), A10, erroneously as Pastel, Interior with Turkish Lady and Servant, richly coloured robes. 

 

Catalogue of Old Pictures and Drawings: The Property of Ernest B. Hall, Esq., deceased, removed from Hales Hall, Market Drayton (Sold by Order of the Executors); The Property of the Hon. Charles Nelson and from Other Sources (London: Christie, Manson and Woods, 1953), 18, as Two Eastern Girls at a Fountain. 

 

Paintings by Old Masters, exh. cat. (London: P. and D. Colnaghi, 1954), unpaginated, (repro.), as A Turkish Lady with her Attendant. 

 

B[enedict] N[icholson], “Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions,” The Burlington Magazine 96, no. 614 (May 1954): 162. 

 

European Masters of the Eighteenth Century: Winter Exhibition, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1954), 58, as A Turkish Lady with her Attendant. 

 

“The Century of Mozart,” Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) 1, no. 1 (January 1956): 14, 29, 86–88, (repro.), as A Turkish Lady and Her Attendant. 

 

“Special Exhibition: The Century of Mozart,” Gallery News (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 23, no. 4 (January 1956): unpaginated, as A Turkish Lady and Her Attendant. 

 

Winifred Shields, “Among the New Acquisitions of the Nelson Gallery of Art: Paintings, Sculptures, and an 18th Century Room Are Added to the Art Treasures,” The Kansas City Star 76, no. 113 (January 8, 1956): [1]E, as Turkish Lady with Her Attendant. 

 

“New Acquisition,” Gallery News (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 23, no. 5 (February 1956): unpaginated, (repro.), as A Turkish Lady and Her Attendant.

 

“Accessions of American and Canadian Museums: January–March, 1956,” The Art Quarterly 19, no. 3 (Autumn 1956): 305, as A Turkish Lady and Her Attendant. 

 

“Special Exhibition: Acquisitions 1956,” Gallery News (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Art) 24, no. 7 (April 1957): unpaginated, as A Turkish Lady and her Attendant. 

 

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 115, 263, (repro.), as A Turkish Lady and Her Attendant. 

 

“Treasures of Kansas City,” The Connoisseur 145, no. 584 (April 1960): 123, as Turkish Lady with her Attendant. 

 

Art Institute of Chicago, Index to Art Periodicals, vol. 6, Indians; M-Liti (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1962), 5299, as A Turkish Lady and her attendant. 

 

Dino Fabbri, ed., I Maestri del colore, vol. 240, Liotard (Milan: Fratelli Fabbri Editori, 1966), unpaginated, as Due turche. 

 

Ralph T. Coe, “The Baroque and Rococo in France and Italy,” Apollo 96, no. 130 (December 1972): 531, 539 [repr. in Denys Sutton, ed., William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City (London: Apollo Magazine, 1972), 63, 71], as A Turkish Lady and Her Attendant. 

 

Ross E. Taggart, “The Charm of Chinoiserie,” Apollo 96, no. 130 (December 1972): 524, 529, (repro.) [repr. in Denys Sutton, ed., William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City (London: Apollo Magazine, 1972), 56, 61, (repro.)], as A Turkish Lady and Her Attendant. 

 

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 138, 262, (repro.), as A Turkish Lady and Her Attendant. 

 

Pierre Rosenberg, The Age of Louis XV: French Painting 1710–1774, exh. cat. (Toledo, OH: Toledo Museum of Art, 1975), 56, (repro.), as Dame franque et sa servante.

 

Renée Loche, Jean-Étienne Liotard (Geneva: Musée d’art et d’histoire, 1976), 27, as Femme turque et fillette sur des échasses. 

 

Renée Loche, Jean-Etienne Liotard: Genf 1702–1789, trans. Brigitte Zehmisch, eds. Felix Baumann and Romy Storrer, exh. cat. (Zurich: Kunsthaus Zürich, 1978), 25, as Türkischen Dame mit Dienerin. 

 

Renée Loche and Marcel Rœthlisberger, L’opera completa di Liotard (Milan: Rizzoli Editore, 1978), no. 51, pp. 93, 127, as Dama franca vestita alla turca con domestica. 

 

Donald A. Rosenthal, Orientalism: The Near East in French Painting, 1800–1880, exh. cat. (Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 1982), 18–19, 167, (repro.), as A Turkish Lady and her Attendant. 

 

Donald Hoffmann, “More about Oudry,” The Kansas City Star 103, no. 292 (August 28, 1983): 8E. 

 

Genre, exh. cat. (Kansas City: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1983), 12, as A Turkish Lady and Her Attendant. 

 

Frans Grijzenhout, Liotard in Nederland, exh. cat. (Utrecht, The Netherlands: Uitgeverij Kwadraat, 1985), 15, as Westerse vrouw in Turkse kleding met een dienstmeisje. 

 

Brian de Breffny, “Liotard's Irish Patrons,” Irish Arts Review 4, no. 2 (Summer 1987): 32. 

 

Jennifer Gordon Lovett, A Glimpse of Rococo France: “The Amorous Proposal” by François Le Moyne, exh. cat. (Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1987), unpaginated, (repro.), as A Frankish Woman and Her Servant. 

 

Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), 16, 68–69, (repro.), as A Frankish Woman and Her Servant. 

 

Auguste Boppe, Les peintres du Bosphore au XVIIIe siècle (Paris: ACR Édition Internationale, 1989), 72, 74, 76, as Dame franque et sa servante. 

 

Marcel G. Rœthlisberger, “The Unseen Faces of Jean-Etienne Liotard’s Drawings,” Drawing 11, no. 5 (January–February 1990): 98. 

 

Nicholas H. J. Hall, ed., Colnaghi in America: A Survey to Commemorate the First Decade of Colnaghi New York (New York: Colnaghi, 1992), 129, as A Frankish Woman and her Servant. 

 

Anne de Herdt, Dessins de Liotard: Suivi du catalogue de l’œuvre dessiné, exh. cat. (Geneva: Musée d’art et d’histoire, 1992), 70, as Dame franque et son esclave au hammam. 

 

Aleth Jourdan et al., Frédéric Bazille: Prophet of Impressionism, trans. John Goodman, exh. cat. (New York: Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1992), 74–75, (repro.), as Frankish Woman and Her Servant and Femme Franque et sa servante. 

 

Michael Churchman and Scott Erbes, High Ideals and Aspirations: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art 1933–1993 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 74, as A Frankish Woman and Her Servant.

 

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1993), 186, (repro.), as A Frankish Woman and Her Servant.  

 

Old Master Drawings (London: Christie’s, July 4, 1995), 74, as A Woman in Turkish Costume in a ‘hamam’ instructing her Servant. 

 

Patricia Pate Havlice, World Painting Index: Second Supplement, 1980–1989, vol. 2, Titles of Works and Their Painters (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1995), 1316, as A Frankish woman and her servant. 

 

Harold Koda, Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001), 142–43, (repro.), as A Frankish Woman and Her Servant. 

 

Old Master and 19th Century Drawings (New York: Christie’s, January 23, 2002), 104, as A woman in Turkish costume in a ‘hammam’ instructing her servant.

 

Linda Abrams, Vanity: The Art of Looking Good (New York: Red Rock Press, 2003), 109, 115, (repro.), as A Frankish Woman and Her Servant.

 

Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800 (London: Unicorn Press, 2006), 352, (repro.), as Dame en turque avec servant. 

 

Claire Stoullig et al., Jean-Étienne Liotard, 1702–1789: Masterpieces from the Musées d'art et d'histoire of Geneva and Swiss Private Collections, exh. cat. (Paris: Somogy Éditions d’Art, 2006), 11. 

 

Abigail Solomon-Godeau, “Jean-Etienne Liotard: Facing the Enlightenment,” Art in America 94, no. 10 (November 2006): 152. 

 

Marcel Rœthlisberger, “Liotard's Sleeping Venus after Titian,” artibus et historiae, no. 55 (2007): 153, as Lady in Turkish dress and her slave. 

 

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 98, (repro.), as A Frankish Woman and Her Servant. 

 

Marcel Rœthlisberger and Renée Loche, Liotard: Catalogue, Sources et Correspondance (Doornspijk, The Netherlands: Davaco, 2008), no. 68; pp. 1: 31–32, 40–41, 115, 275–76, 464; 2: unpaginated, (repro.), as Dame et sa servante au bain and Dame et son esclave au bain. 

 

Old Masters and 19th Century Art: Including Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours (London: Christie’s, July 7, 2009), 132, as A lady in Turkish costume with her servant at the hammam. 

 

Neil Jeffares, “Two English portraits by Liotard: Lady Anne Somerset and Catherine, Lady Hawke,” British Art Journal 15, no. 3 (Spring 2015): 7, as Dame et sa servant au bain. 

 

Thea Burns and Philippe Saunier, The Art of the Pastel (New York: Abbeville Press, 2015), 97, as Lady and Her Servant at the Bath. 

 

Beatrice Gullström et al., Jean-Etienne Liotard: 1702–1789, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2015), 169. 

 

Didier Rykner, “Une peinture de Liotard acquise par le Rijksmuseum,” La Tribune de l’art (December 2016): unpaginated. 

 

Frederick Ilchman et al., eds., Casanova: The Seduction of Europe, exh. cat. (Boston: MFA Publications, 2017), 99, 109–11, 284n25, 306, (repro.), as A Frankish Woman and Her Servant.

 

Karen Wilkin, “Art: Casanova in Forth Worth,” The New Criterion 36, no. 2 (October 2017): 50. 

 

Duncan Bull, “Recent Acquisitions,” The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 66, no. 1 (2018).

 

Nurhan Atasoy, Turkish Bath Culture [not the title], ed., Gülayşe Karslıoğlu (Istanbul: Municipality of Istanbul, 2018), (repro.).  

 

Old Master and British Works on Paper (London: Sothebys, July 3, 2019), n7.

 

Stephen Cribb and Steve Huxham, Out of the Mud: The History of the Worshipful Company of Pattenmakers with which the Ancient Mystery of Galochmakers was Incorporated in the Fifteenth Century, ed. Richard Kottler (Inverness, UK: Phillimore Book Publishing, 2020), 186–87, (repro.), as A lady in Turkish dress and her servant.


Kristel Smentek, “Jean Etienne Liotard, A Lady in Turkish Dress and Her Servant, ca. 1750,” catalogue entry and Diana M. Jaskierny, “Jean Etienne Liotard, A Lady in Turkish Dress and Her Servant, ca. 1750,” technical entry in French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.322.

Julian Zugazagoitia and Laura Spencer. Director's Highlights: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Celebrating 90 Years, ed. Kaitlyn Bunch (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), 71, (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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